Author: lisaandtony

Milford Sound, New Zealand

Post author By lisaandtony
Post date February 21, 2011
No Comments on Milford Sound, New Zealand

Total Miles Traveled: 59,378

One of the highlights in Fiordlands (southwest of the South Island of New Zealand) is Milford Sound, which is technically not a sound (which we learned is formed by running water) but a fiord carved out by glaciers over the course of thousands of years. The drive to Milford Sound is also rated as one of the top must-drive roads in New Zealand and it lived up to the hype. Really breathtaking in spots. It’s about 3 hours from Queenstown, so if that’s too much of a trek, stay in Te Anau which is much closer.

Milford Sound is the more well-traveled of two famous sounds in the Fiordlands, the other being Doubtful Sound. What’s amazing about this place is how tall the surrounding mountains are and how small you feel. You can’t really get a sense of it until you are actually there next to the wall or see a huge sailing vessel look like a toy boat next to the cliffs.

So, since it was such a well-traveled destination, we decided to try something a bit offbeat – well, not offbeat for us per se, because it was scuba diving.

Why on earth would we want to go scuba diving in freezing water? We don’t know. It was probably a bad idea. But the selling point was that we would dive through murky glacial runoff (fresh, 44 degree F water) for the first 15 feet and then in to clear, 63 degree F sea water underneath. And why is this significant? Because you’d see sealife there that’s normally at super deep depths but is very close to the surface in this environment because of the murky runoff above that filters out the light.

So how cold does 44 degree F water feel (even after wearing 7mm wetsuits, hood, gloves, boots)? @#$(*@@! cold. So cold that it literally took Lisa’s breath away and she started to go in to shock… that is, until our divemaster, a crusty former Egyptian Navy Seal, told her to breath in to her regulator and pushed her head underwater. Tough love! But it worked! She was much happier to be underwater. And here’s Lisa after she made it down:

The first thing we saw were spiny lobsters – you see them just about anywhere. But they were huge. Probably about 18 inches not including antennae.

Here’s an example of deep sea life – black coral. “Yes, but it’s white”, you say. Verry observant. The reason it’s called black coral is the skeleton of the coral is black, so when the dead version of this would wash up on shore, it looked black. But healthy black coral is actually white!

Some other sea life – anemone:

Stinging hydroids:

Here we are trying to warm up in between dives:

Here’s our divemaster. Yes, that is a rusty saw in his hands. I’d be lying if I told you it was standard SCUBA equipment (no way!). He was on his way down to saw some rope off of the propeller.

We were hoping to see this baby fur seal underwater, but he was just chilling out.

Sea urchin:

Brittle star with 11 legs:

After our dives, we did a mini-hike to a waterfall with glacial runoff. It was COLD.

Some more photos of Milford Sound:

See how small that ship looks against the wall? That ship carries hundreds of people.

See the slideshow below for a look at all of our photos:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626134060232″]

New Zealand

Queenstown, New Zealand

Total Miles Traveled: 59,200

It is with heavy hearts that we write our first blog post on New Zealand. We arrived in New Zealand for an overnight stay in Christchurch. Luckily we left for Queenstown one day before the earthquake. We want to send our thoughts to all those affected by the Christchurch quake. Christchurch is a small quaint town and we know that this quake has deeply affected all residents.

After our brief stay in Christchurch, we hopped down to the southern part of the South Island… Queenstown. To say New Zealand is beautiful is a big understatement. We got our first look at NZ’s beauty in Queenstown.

Lord of the Rings fans know that New Zealand is really Middle Earth… here’s a view of what could be a scene from Middle Earth.

Check out the color of the water… so vibrant!

We also saw our first of many many sheep. It used to be that there were 10 sheep for every human in NZ but after an increase in New Zealand branded lamb and a general paring back process, there is now only 3 sheep for every human. Take a look at some of these sheep…

We leave you with this shot just outside of Queenstown… And to think that this was just the start of NZ beauty!

Check out all our photos here:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626141977210″]

Australia

Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania

Post author By lisaandtony
Post date February 17, 2011
No Comments on Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania

Total Miles Traveled: 56,577

Cradle Mountain is a hikers mecca and is home to the Overland Track, one of the world’s best multi-day (80km / 50 mi) walks. We didn’t do the Overland Track, but there are plenty of beautiful day hikes in the area, like the one around Dove Lake (2 hrs)… see above and below.

We also hiked along a forest… it reminded Tony of the forests featured in Lord of the Rings.

The favorite part of our stay in Cradle Mountain was seeing the wildlife. Check out this shy wombat…

We didn’t see any wallabies in Bonorong Wildlife Park, so we very excited to see them in the wild. Wallabies are basically Kangaroos with smaller ears. This guy looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

On our second day, we did a 4 hour hike across Lake Lilla and Wombat Falls…. quite a cloudy morning.

Picture perfect sunset / moonrise…

After two days of hiking, we drove to Launceston in the north central coast of Tasmania to stay a night before we started our journey to New Zealand. We discovered a fantastic restaurant that you must try if you go: Stillwater Cafe. The tasting menu is awesome and worth every penny of the steep price.

Here’s our raw, locally grown oyster dish. We chose to have it 3 ways: au naturale, “Thai style” with herbs (coriander, lemongrass, hot chili slices), and a shooter which had cucumber, mint, fresh-ground Tasmanian wasabi, rice vinegar. Fantastic!

Well that’s it for Tasmania! We loved out week here and we had barely scratched the surface. Definitely lots to see and worth a visit if you have the time.

Check out all out pics from Cradle Mountain:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626001127955″]

Tags tasmania

Australia

Coles Bay, Tasmania

Total Miles Traveled: 56,392

Coles Bay is next to the Freycinet National Park on the east coast of Tasmania. It’s where the famed Wineglass Bay is, purportedly one of the world’s top 10 beaches. The drive from Hobart is pretty spectacular, with jaw-dropping scenery, blueblue water and some nice wineries reminiscent of California vineyards (try visiting Freycinet, Coombend and Kelvedon (appt only) for their Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noirs). The area also boasts a marine farm where they grow oysters (yum) that are reminiscent of kumamotos.

The sunset at the Edge of the Bay restaurant, is worth a try if you are staying in the area:

We hiked to the lookout to Wineglass Bay (30 minute medium effort uphill) but it was quite overcast and started raining. It’s probably a beautiful beach when it’s clear, but we didn’t go down to find out so the jury’s still out on the top 10 beach reputation. I’m not convinced!

Interesting rock formation… (who’s that hiding? It’s an egg, it’s a headless man… NO! It’s an Egg Head)

Interesting pine cones:

Interesting tree bark:

Looking down a steep cliff:

Here’s another bay in the national park – the orange stuff are lichens growing on the rock.

Tide pools with seaweed:

Anyway, we definitely recommend a drive up the east coast of Tasmania. Worth spending a couple of days in Coles Bay and not rush it like we ended up doing. Have a look at all of our photos from Coles Bay below:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626125316936″]

Tags tasmania

Australia

Bonorong Wildlife Park -Home of the Tasmanian Devil

Post author By lisaandtony
Post date February 15, 2011
No Comments on Bonorong Wildlife Park -Home of the Tasmanian Devil

Total Miles Traveled: 56,296

If you were born before the 80s, chances are you’ve heard of the Tasmanian Devil (or Taz) who is a loveable – if not slightly crazy – cartoon character by Looney Toons.

We were very excited to see the actual Tasmanian Devils, who are not nearly so crazy (they actually sleep 18 hours a day), but who are equally lovable.

Taz Real Tasmanian Devil

The story of the Devil is actually quite sad. The species is dying. Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease has drastically reduced the devil population and now threatens the survival of the species, which in May 2009 was declared to be endangered. This type of cancer is viral and so there are programs in place to keep those not infected from becoming infected. Bonorong is actively engaged in getting Taz off the endangered list, so we wanted to support the park and see the little devils in person. In addition to the devils, they also have other native animals.

This evil looking creature is an emu. This bird emits a deep guttural sound – similar to slapping the end of a PVC pipe – and has teeth-like ridges on its beak… sharp ones too! This emu reminded me of one of the evil dinosaurs from Jurassic Park! I think this one is thinking “I’ll get you my pretty!”

We were very excited to see Kangaroos – or Roos – and we even more thrilled that we got to feed them. We loved interacting with these marsupials! Here’s Tony, and his new friend. Look at the way the Roo cups Tony’s hand.

Here’s a little Roo inside her mom’s pouch!

Check out the long claws…

This little cutie is called an echidna (or, as I call them, ‘enchilada’) yet another marsupial. They have very sharp spikes to fend off prey.

We were surprised how much we loved the wombat – Morris is the baby wombat pictured below. They too sleep about 18 hours a day. Check out the mouth. Later during our trip in Tassie, we got to see the wombat in the wild. They’re adorable!!

One cool thing about the wombat is that they have a “hard butt.” What does that mean? They’ve adapted such that when a predator tries to attack the wombat in its burrow, it turns around and shows its butt. Why? Because the butt is hardened cartilage that when you hit it with your knuckles, it sounds like you’re hitting hard plastic! Neat!

Here’s a frog-mouthed owl awake during the day. He’s a bit cross-eyed.

A koala bear awake – which is rare – since they sleep 20 hours a day.

This koala came out and started groaning repeatedly, which we were told is a way to show dominance over other koalas in the area. He owns this tree, we are merely visitors.

We had a lot of fun with the roos. This baby roo was adorable but quite skittish. I had to coax her to eat from my hand.

After a while, the little roo had enough and wanted to jump back into mom’s pouch.

Final photos of the Devil… we hope that all the programs underway will help bring them back from the being endangered!

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625999742509″]

Tags tasmania

Australia

Bruny Island, Tasmania

Total Miles Traveled: 56,279

Bruny Island is a fantastic day trip from Hobart where you can go hiking, kayaking, find your own beach to hang out on, and/or go on a nice boat cruise.

We definitely recommend doing the cruise – it gives you a lot of beautiful vistas you wouldn’t see just driving or hiking. If you do the cruise, you likely won’t have time to do anything else on the island, so look in to staying overnight.

The boats are super powerful/fast so they issue you wind and waterproof gear because being wet and cold isn’t fun.

You’ll see huge, dramatic cliff faces…

Interesting rock formations caused by erosion…

There’s a male fur seal colony which is fun to observe, not so nice to smell though. These guys are like the dogs of the sea.

Some huge wave action washing over the kelp…

We were visited by a pod of dolphins that played in the wake of the boat’s bow:

The island is oddly shaped with a skinny isthmus connecting two big chunks of land, and as you can see, the two sides are very different. Both are saltwater, but the right side is more of a lagoon, facing out to the Tasmania mainland, and the other faces out to the Tasman Sea.

Another look at the lagoon at low tide:

If you haven’t noticed already, the water is almost unnaturally blue. Beautiful.

And this beach you see here, there’s no one on it. That means, you could have it all to yourself!

So, Bruny Island is worth a visit, especially if you like the outdoors, beaches, and fantastic views. If you go, try the Hothouse Cafe for lunch – their burger is massive and very tasty. There’s also a local oyster farm that serves up freshly shucked oysters, just north of the isthmus… very nice.

Here’s a look at all of our photos:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626108923006″]

Tags tasmania

Australia

Hobart, Tasmania

Total Miles Traveled: 56,551

We did not originally consider going to Tasmania. It wasn’t anywhere near our radar screen. But… the great thing about travelling is talking to other travelers. We spoke with the many Aussies we’ve met along our travels and they all said we must go to “Tassie”. They promised stunning scenery, great food and wine, and a relaxing almost ‘spiritual’ vibe. They were right!

Our port of entry was Hobart – the capital of the small island off of the southeast of Australia. There are about 500,000 people who live on the island and Hobart is home to half of all residents. We arrived on a very sunny Sunday during a boat show and regatta. The marina was filled with beautiful boats of all sizes, many with beautifully colored flags. Not a bad way to start our visit!!

There was a professional sand castle builder who reminded us of our friend Whitney who likes to build big, complicated sand castles. We suspect Whitney is jealous of this guy’s sails!!

A fishing vessel carrying lobster traps. Yummmmmm lobster….

Hmmm.. skater dudes here sure do look a lot like skater dudes in the US!

Downtown Hobart.

Boat makers show their wares…

To see all our photos, check out our slide show:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626109134054″]

Australia

The Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Post author By lisaandtony
Post date February 9, 2011
No Comments on The Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Total Miles Traveled: 56,177

The Great Ocean Road is one of the big highlights of visiting Melbourne – dare I say, a ‘must-do’. With great weather, it is a beautiful drive up the coastline to the southwest of Melbourne, with the crown jewel being the 12 Apostles (pictured above) near the end of the road.

We took a one-day tour with Gray Line. Not cheap, but you won’t have to drive and can spend all of your time enjoying the scenery or napping. Make sure to: line up early to get your pick of seat, sit on the left side of the bus, on the upper deck. If you have more time, you can drive yourself and stay a night or two along the way.

As you can see, it’s reminiscent of the California coast.

There are many beaches… and many famous surfing spots. The scenery just doesn’t get old…

Then, you come to the 12 apostles. Each big rock “island” is an apostle. Though now there are only 8 because 4 have been worn away and have toppled. This area had some spectacular scenery:

There was also an element of danger (gasp!):

Some really nice rock formations and color from rain and erosion:

Another apostle:

And here’s how it looks and sounds live. Instant relaxation when you visit it in person.

Here are all of the photos from our journey down the Great Ocean Road:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625889605705″]

Australia

Melbourne, Australia

Total Miles Traveled: 55,900

Melbourne is listed as one of the most livable cities in the world and we could see why. It’s got a little bit of everything: urban sophistication, a cafe/coffee culture, lively restaurant and bar scene, sports culture (Aussie-rules football originated here), stunning nearby beaches, wine regions, and an ethnically diverse population (they even have real mafia wars! No joke!).

I’d been to Melbourne 5 years ago for my friend Jinah’s wedding. When we visited this time, she had 3 kids under the age of 5 running around the house. Quite a change from when we were in b-school!

Anyway, here are some scenes from the city which has a very compact city center. This is a view down Flinders Street next to Federation Square (also pictured above), which has very interesting architecture. For example, the ground isn’t flat – it has many angles and slopes, like the building you see below.

There’s a nice riverfront area with parks, bars, and cafes – all very walkable.

The city also tolerates (encourages?) graffiti art. There’s even a map at the tourist center that shows you where to go see the best graffiti! Here’s Union Lane in the CBD (central business district).

Chinatown is also an attraction, though I’m not sure why. It’s much like Boston’s, only 2-3 blocks.

The Chinese tourists find Chinatown to be fascinating:

Ahh, there we go – this is why Chinatown is interesting… there’s a restaurant named after Lisa’s family – the Westlake restaurant!

Then we headed out to St. Kilda, a nearby suburb on the beach. Here’s the sunset at the beach:

Then, on our final days in Melbourne, we made it out to the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, where there are a lot of cool-climate wines being made – think Oregon or Washington State. Worth a visit if you have some extra time in Melbourne. Thanks, Jinah, for providing us with a place to crash!

Cool photo of the peninsula:

Next up, we visit the Great Ocean Road, southwest of Melbourne, which is a bit like the California coastline. Here is a slideshow of our photos in Melbourne:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625892698461″]

Australia

Perth and Margaret River, Australia

Post author By lisaandtony
Post date February 1, 2011
2 Comments on Perth and Margaret River, Australia

Total Miles Traveled: 54,208 (We passed the 50K mark! This means we’ve circumnavigated the earth at its equator more than 2 times!)

After Madives, we rested for a few days in Bali. We got massages at our favorite massage place Jari Menari … 3 days = 3 massages! And we caught up with my friend from business school KW Low. How did we know KW would in Bali? We didn’t! But he posted about going there on Facebook. Gotta love Facebook status updates!

After resting in Bali, we arrived at our first English-speaking country in over 6 months. We were thrilled to be able to read signs and communicate with the locals! After going through a VERY rigorous baggage screening process (Australians are fiercely protective of allowing in any bio agent that can hurt their agriculture industry), we made our way 3 hours south to Margaret River Valley – one of Australia’s ‘premier’ wine regions. So what were our first impressions about Australia? Two things – one good and one not-so-good.

First, the good: the area seemed unusually vibrant. The colors were super crisp. It was like walking around in a photo-shopped world. We asked a few locals about this super-color effect. They offered us 2 theories — (1) very little pollution and (2) the angle of the sun since Perth is very far south. Regardless of the reason, our photos turned out great and we didn’t need to do anything to make them so!

The second – and not so good – we noticed how fricken expensive Australia is! We call it “stupid expensive”, but not because it’s anyone’s doing. It’s the exchange rate/weak US Dollar. In years past, the US $ was stronger than the Australian $ so prices were discounted or even fair. Now the currencies are 1-1. NOT FUN! Here are some examples:

Appetizer (what they call ‘entrees’) at a decent restaurant = $20-30

Entree (what they call ‘mains’) at a decent restaurant = $35-50

Dessert at a decent restaurant = $15-20

Subway footlong sub = $12

And … per the photo below… JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings book is $40 (in the US it would be ~ $25 or less)

But putting costs aside, we very much enjoyed our first few days exploring the west coast of Australia. We tasted the wines in Margaret River…

We also visited the local Boranup forest, featuring karri trees. The light through the trees was stunning!!

And after a few days getting to know the wines, we drove back up to explore Perth. The photo below is taken at the Little Creatures Brewery / restaurant in the hip and trendy area of Fremantle.

We LOVED the Little Creatures micro-brew. Every one of their beers is superb, but pale ale and bright ale are still our favorites!

We also found – but did not try – another local delight… really??

Perth is the most remote city in the world, with the nearest major city, Adelaide, over 1,500 miles away. It’s also where a lot of Australia’s wealth is generated, from all of the mining operations which are now buoyed by China’s demand for building materials.

The city reminded us a lot of San Diego with beach community after beach community going up and down the coast. In fact, Western Australia also reminded us of the US. It was like we were in an alternate reality complete with high real estate prices that California is known for.

People from all over the world flock here to take part in the water-related sports. The wind and kite surfing looks pretty good.

Here’s the well-known Cottesloe beach:

To see all our photos, check out our slideshow:

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157626011118984″]

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